Costco employees pick the 11 most surprising items the wholesale retailer sells

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You can buy everything from giant bears to toilet stools.

• Costco stores are known for their sometimes outside-the-box offerings and deals.
• Some of the chain's more unexpected products have attracted particular notice from Costco employees.
• Business Insider reached out to workers to learn about Costco's less conventional items.

Costco stores boast a ton of deals, tasty food court options, and, occasionally, some straight-up surprising products.

Of course, we shouldn't really be surprised that a retail chain that sells vacations and cars also features a range of out-of-left-field items. Take emergency food kits that can feed a doomsday-prepping family for a year, for instance. Or gallon jars of mayonnaise. Costco has even gotten in on the art business, selling works by Henri Matisse in 2012.

Business Insider recently asked a number of Costco employees about the most unexpected products they had ever seen sold in a Costco. Here's what they had to share.